Inside The Bills

Bills kickoff specialist John Potter was perfect on kickoffs for touchbacks in the preseason going 8-for-8. He was the only kicker in the league in the preseason to have a perfect mark for touchbacks… until Thursday night.

Potter nailed his first two kickoffs in the preseason finale against Detroit for touchbacks making him 10-for-10 on kickoffs. Then to start the second half, Potter booted the opening kick four yards deep in the end zone and it was returned to the 19-yard line for a 23-yard return.

On his next kickoff later in the third, he only kicked off two yards into the end zone allowing Nate Hughes to return it to 19 yards to the Detroit 17. He finished the preseason with 11 touchbacks on 13 kickoffs.

“I feel pretty good about how I kicked off except for a few kicks—a few shorter ones in this game and one in the first game,” Potter said. “But overall, I’m pretty happy with how I performed so far.”

Potter’s kickoffs have gone for touchbacks so frequently that most thought the kickoffs to start the second half were short on purpose to get the coverage team some live practice on returners, but that wasn’t the case.

“On those ones, I wasn’t trying to hit it my hardest,” he said. “And maybe at that point, later in the game, you don’t have the adrenaline flowing so you got to hit it a little bit harder. That’s something I need to get a handle on, and start working on in the coming weeks.

When asked if the two non-touchbacks would factor into the final equation on whether Potter makes the 53-man roster.